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A Third Rail on Military Pay and Benefits?

One item in the Obama administration’s fiscal 2013 defense-spending request could hit a third rail with military voters: changes to military pay and benefits.

Over the past decade, Congress approved large pay increases for the active-duty military, driving up personnel costs. And health-care costs more than doubled between 2001 and 2013, from $19 billion to $49 billion.

To help rein in spiraling personnel costs, the Defense Department is proposing changes to Tricare, the military’s health-care system. Among other things, the budget is proposing an increase in some enrollment fees, increased pharmaceutical co-pays, and a plan to index all fees to reflect general health-care cost inflation.

On the pay front, the Pentagon proposed a 1.7% pay increase for 2013, in line with the private sector wage increases. But budget documents propose lower raises for 2014 and beyond, as part of “an effort to control costs” in the department.

beyond, as part of “an effort to control costs” in the department.

Changes to military retirement or health benefits promise to be politically charged, particularly in an election year: Veterans groups and military retirees have mobilized before to halt modest increases to military health-care premiums.